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Frequently Asked Questions About Geomedix™
What
is Geomedix?
What
are the applications for Geomedix?
How
can you compare individual investigative sites?
What
sources of information does Geomedix use?
How accurate is the
Geomedix process?
What
if we need new sites?
What
is Geomedix?
Geomedix™
is a unique mapping methodology that utilizes diagnosis data,
sophisticated statistical modeling and spatial analysis to identify and
chart disease intercepts on a national or local basis. Geomedix can
accurately estimate the number of individuals with a specific condition
living within a designated radius of any existing or proposed research
site. This concise geographic analysis can provide a study sponsor or
clinical trial management organization with a valuable tool for clinical
trial site selection.
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What
are the applications for Geomedix?
The
Geomedix process is a decision-support tool that can aid in the following
areas.
Clinical
trial facility location:
Because so many medical conditions are geographically linked,
disease-state mapping can make an important difference in trial
recruitment. At the macro
level, the Geomedix process can compare prospective cities in order to
determine which of those cities appears to have the greatest potential in
terms of disease-state population. At
a more granular level, the Geomedix process utilizes computerized spatial
analysis to actually compare investigative facilities within any city in
the U.S.
Media
market opportunity: Clinical trial sponsors or their research management
organizations can compare disease-state populations to the advertising
media costs for any U.S. DMA in order to rank potential cost-benefit
relationships. If a trial
recruiting campaign costs nearly the same in two markets, but one of those
markets has an estimated 25% higher disease prevalence rate, which market
is likely to offer a better return on investment?
But
the Geomedix process isn’t just a useful tool for research trials. The same technique can also be used to evaluate markets and
campaigns for approved products as well.
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How
can you compare individual investigative sites?
One
of the techniques Geomedix deploys is spatial analysis. In simple terms, the Geomedix process can construct
bands of any distance around an investigative site. The
program then looks at the underlying census tracts within each
of those bands, compares the expected disease population for that tract
with the tract’s geography inside the band, and aggregates the data. The result is an estimate of the total disease population within
each radius. (Any radius can
be used. Generally, the more
urbanized the metropolitan area, the smaller the banding.)
In
best practice, several sites in the same metropolitan area are examined
using the Geomedix process. The
outcome is a matrix comparing each facility within each banding scenario.
The Geomedix technique is also excellent for analyzing the potential for
nearby sites cannibalizing each other's patients, thus eliminating
redundancies.
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of Page
What
sources of information does Geomedix use?
Currently,
the Geomedix process draws on over 500 databases including prescription
transactions, hospital discharge reports, ICD-9 billing codes,
government agency reporting, journal archives, patient demographics, and
other medical databases.
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of Page
How
accurate is the Geomedix process?
Obviously
the more that is known about a medical condition, the more robust the
ensuing analysis. Yet even
with limited information, the Geomedix model can make meaningful
comparisons and therefore provide valuable information when assessing
cities and investigative facilities for clinical trial, as well as
potential markets for products already approved.
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of Page
What
if we need new sites?
The
Geomedix process also houses SiteFinder, a database of U.S. investigative
sites classified by therapeutic specialty. We can evaluate each potential
site in terms of its adjacent patient population and select those
facilities with the greatest recruitment potential.
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